University returns $1 million grant to Coca-Cola

The University of Colorado School of Medicine has announced that it is returning a US$1 million gift from Coca-Cola after it was revealed that the money had been used to establish an advocacy group that played down the link between soft drinks and obesity, writes Anahad O’Connor for The New York Times.

Coca-Cola donated the money in 2014 to help establish the Global Energy Balance Network, a non-profit group of scientists that urged people to focus more on exercise and worry less about what they eat and drink. Coke’s financial ties to the group prompted criticism that the soft drink giant was supporting scientists as a way to shape obesity research, an issue reported by The New York Times in August.

In response to the article, Coke’s chief executive, Muhtar Kent, disclosed that the company had spent almost US$120 million since 2010 to pay for academic health research and for partnerships with major medical and community groups involved in curbing the obesity epidemic.
Full report on The New York Times site